Contaminated wastes disposal system

ABSTRACT

The system (10) for collecting and disposing of contaminated waste products such as medical sharps and other medical wastes includes a housing (11) and its telescopic cover (9) which are fabricated of biodegradable and combustible material such as natural cellulose and non-natural cellulose. An absorbent biodegradable and combustible absorption package (30) or insert (35) can be placed in the bottom of the holding chamber (12) for absorbing any liquids emitted from the sharps and other wastes, and for enhancing the combustion of the medical sharps and other wastes when the housing is placed in a furnace. When the housing is burned it evolves no more than trace levels of sulfur or chlorine and yields substantially only biodegradable ash.

CROSS REFERENCE

This is a continuation-in-part of prior U.S. Pat. applications Ser. Nos.699,915 filed May 14, 1991 U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,167,193 and 737,427 filedJul. 29, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,375.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to a system for disposing ofcontaminated wastes. More particularly, the invention relates to asystem for collecting and disposing of medical sharps and other medicalwastes in a home or hospital environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The term "medical sharps" generally is defined as medical instrumentshaving a sharp cutting edge or a sharp point. In the medicalenvironment, sharps comprise hypodermic needles, syringes, scalpelblades, and the like. After use, medical sharps are consideredcontaminated wastes and must be disposed of. Other contaminated medicalwastes, including chemotherapy, pathological and dental wastes, comprisesurgical tubing, washcloths, surgical gloves, masks, garments, drapes,cultures of infectious agents, and the like. Additionally, other typesof wastes include surgical "kit packs" for performing specific surgicalprocedures, whereby after use in an operation, such kit packs areconsidered contaminated wastes. After use, medical sharps and othercontaminated medical wastes must be safely collected and disposed ofwithout creating a hazard for the hospital personnel, patients, orvisitors of a medical care facility, or for members of the family whenused in the home.

Typically in the home environment, medical wastes such as expiredmedication, medical gauze, and medical tape can be safely discarded in aregular household trash can. However, in other situations where thepatient receives medical injections away from the medical care facility,such as a diabetic patient who must monitor his or her blood sugar leveland then administer self-injections of insulin, the used insulin needlesyringes must be safely disposed of so as to avoid presenting a hazardto other members of the family or community. Also, other diseasesrequire the frequent use of needle syringes in the home. Presently, noneof the known prior art discloses a collector or receptor for safelydiscarding contaminated or hazardous medical wastes such as insulinsyringes of a diabetic patient in a home environment.

When medical sharps or surgical "kit packs" are being used in ahospital, typically the hospital protocol is to use and immediatelydispose of these medical wastes in receptacles, such as in plastic,wall-mounted receptacles or in large receptors placed on the floorhaving an open top, otherwise known as "kick buckets". Typically themedical waste receptacles are placed in strategic locations throughoutthe hospital or other medical treatment facility, such as in thepatient's rooms, in the hall outside the patient's room, in treatmentrooms, operating rooms, and emergency rooms, so as to be available forreceiving the medical wastes immediately and conveniently after use bythe nurse, physician, or other medical personnel. Additionally, the kickbuckets are generally placed in operating rooms and emergency rooms forreceiving large volumes of various types of medical wastes. Thereceptacles must be suitably sized and shaped to receive the anticipatedamount of medical waste over a period of time, depending on the protocolof the medical facility, and the receptacles must easily receive yetsecurely and safely retain the medical waste so as to avoid presenting ahazard to children or to disoriented patients or to curious visitors.

After these receptacles are filled with medical wastes, they arecollected for disposal, usually for burning in an incinerator. Thecollection procedure usually requires housekeeping personnel to moveabout the hospital with a plastic bag or other relatively largecontainer and to place the filled receptacles in the bag, and to replacethe used receptacles with new empty receptacles, for example bydismounting the used plastic receptacles from their wall brackets andmounting the new receptacles in the wall brackets. After replacement andcollection of the medical waste receptacles, the collected receptaclesare securely packaged in a larger container such as a plastic bag orcardboard box and the bag or box is carried to a burn facility.

During the containment and collection procedure of medical wastes, thereis the hazard that the medical waste materials will contaminate thepersonnel who are handling or are exposed to the wastes. Experiencedemonstrates that accidents caused by the medical waste materialsthrough skin scratch or puncture and other exposure are occasionalcauses of injury to personnel and such accidents are a considerableexpense to hospitals and insurance companies.

For example, when the used receptacles that are filled with medicalwastes are being removed from their holders or being transported, theneedle of a syringe can protrude from or escape from its individualreceptacle and scratch or puncture the personnel handling thereceptacle.

Therefore, it is highly desirable that the use-and-dispose methodprovides for safe containment and collection of the medical sharps andother wastes within the home and the hospital environment by providing acollector which is puncture resistant and leak resistant.

Another problem can be created during disposal of the medical wastes.The usual method of disposal is incineration, whereby the medical wastesare converted into ash for delivery to a landfill, etc. The disposalsystems for the medical wastes range from on-site incinerators tocontract disposal services which transport the medical wastes tooff-site burn facilities. Generally, the treatment plants incinerate thecollectors and the medical wastes contained in the collectors and thenbury the residue of the burned medical wastes and collectors in alandfill.

An incineration technique is especially advantageous for disintegratingcontaminated sharps and other pathological wastes, because incinerationhas the ability to convert the contaminated substances into anon-contaminated ash. However, when certain materials such as plasticsof a syringe are burned, ashes from the incineration of these materialscan become a partially pyrolized plastic residue, which is essentially atar ash or residue which when buried in a landfill, is non-biodegradablewaste. Although the ashes of plastic syringes and some other types ofplastic wastes will be delivered to landfills, it is highly desirable toavoid the use of plastic collectors for these wastes, because whenplastic collectors are burned they can emit toxic gases to theatmosphere and create even more non-biodegradable ash, which is anundesirable additive to a landfill.

Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a disposable collector systemfor collecting and disposing of medical sharps and other medical wasteswhich is safe and efficient to use, which is biodegradable, which can bespecifically constructed for home use by a diabetic, and which can beincinerated without the evolution of any substantial toxic gases andwhich when burned aids in rendering the wastes. It also would bedesirable to fabricate the collector of a combustible material thatyields substantially only biodegradable ash upon incineration and toadjust the mass of the collector with respect to the anticipated mass ofthe wastes to be collected in the collector so as to control the heatemitted by the collector upon burning so as to render the containedwastes in to ash. Thus, the ratio of the resulting biodegradable ash ofthe collector with respect to the non-biodegradable ash of the waste canbe controlled when the collector and its wastes are burned.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly described, the present invention comprises a system forcollecting and disposing of medical sharps and other medical wastes,which provides a leak resistant, combustible, and biodegradable housingincluding a closed lower portion and an upper portion with an openingfor receiving medical wastes. In one embodiment of the invention theupper portion of the housing includes a lid with an openable area, suchas a scored portion of the housing for yieldably opening the upperportion of the housing while normally maintaining the housing closed. Awall bracket is provided for mounting the housing to a wall of abuilding for releasably holding the housing in a firm and safecondition.

Additionally, the collector housing is formed of a renewable resource ornon petroleum-based material, which when incinerated will yieldsubstantially only a biodegradable ash, otherwise known as mineral-ash.In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the entire housing isfabricated of material possessing combustible and biodegradablecharacteristics. When incinerated in a furnace environment the collectorinitially retains its medical wastes and the heat of combustion of thecollector adds to the heat used to render the medical wastes in thecollector housing.

One embodiment of the invention is specifically sized and shaped toreceive an anticipated amount of insulin syringes in the homeenvironment of a diabetic patient. Additionally, an embodiment has theoption of being attached if desired, such as by adhesives, to horizontalor other selected surfaces of different rooms throughout the home so asto be conveniently located for disposal of the used syringes after eachself injection of insulin. This embodiment also provides a designatedplace to collect and dispose of the used insulin syringes in the homeenvironment.

In another embodiment of the invention, a wall-mounted head or lidreleasably supports the disposable collector housing, and the wallmounted lid of the housing receives and passes the medical wastes intoits collector housing. This head is formed of a clear material such asglass or any other material with glass-like qualities wherein the usercan view inside the housing as the medical wastes are collected and fillup the housing. Additionally, the head is cleanable and non-stainable.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides an absorbentmaterial located inside a collector housing for absorbing any fluidemitted from or residual on the discarded medical wastes. A preferredform of the absorbent material possesses all or a combination ofabsorbent, cellulosic, antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal,biodegradable, and combustible properties, whereby any residual fluidinside the collector housing tends to be preferentially absorbed anddispersed in the absorbent material to protect personnel from cominginto direct contact with the liquid medical wastes, and whenincinerated, the dispersion of the fluids in the absorbent materialtends to enhance combustion of the discarded medical wastes.

In another embodiment of this invention, the housing comprises adual-wall construction, wherein the material of the housing also isfabricated of a combustible and biodegradable material. In addition,this embodiment provides an effective approach to controlling the wallthickness of the housing, which substantially increases thepuncture-resistance factor of the housing. The dual-wall constructioncan be combined with an absorptive package or insert within the housingto further improve the leak resistance of the system for collecting anddisposing of medical wastes.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide anapparatus which collects, contains, and disposes of medical wastes in asafe, convenient, and inexpensive manner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a collectorhousing which can be suitably sized, shaped, and placed to receive ananticipated amount of insulin syringes in the home environment of adiabetic.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a collectorhousing which is combustible and biodegradable and formed from arenewable resource, otherwise known as a non-petroleum-based material.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a collectorhousing particularly advantageous for use when discarding chemotherapy,pathological, and other non-sharp medical wastes.

A further object of the present invention is to provide such a systemfor collecting and disposing of medical sharps, whereby the housingitself is puncture resistant, leak resistant, rigid, and combustible forsafe containment and effective treatment of medical sharps.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a collectorhousing for collecting and disposing of medical wastes in a safe andeconomical manner, and to provide within the housing an absorptive,antimicrobial, antifungal, antibacterial material whereby when wastesare deposited into the housing, any fluid emitted from the wastes willbe absorbed and disinfected.

A further object of this invention is to provide a collector housing forcollecting and disposing of medical wastes wherein an absorbent andcombustible material is contained within the housing adjacent the spacewhere the medical wastes are collected.

Another object of this invention is to provide a system for collectingand disposing of medical wastes, such as syringes used for injectingmedication, whereby the system comprises a combustible housing that,upon combustion, fully renders the medical waste within the environmentof a furnace.

It is another object of the present invention to provide such a systemof collecting and disposing of medical wastes wherein the housing forcollecting the medical wastes is of appropriate mass and rigidity duringinitial burning to substantially retain the medical wastes therein,until the wastes combust and begin to be reduced to ash.

Another object of the present invention is to provide such a collectorsystem in which the housing itself comprises a combustible materialthat, upon combustion leaves substantially only biodegradable ash.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a system forcollecting and disposing of medical wastes wherein the entire housing isfabricated of a clean burning combustible material that, uponcombustion, emits gases which are substantially free of sulfur orchlorine.

A more complete understanding of the present invention will be had bythose skilled in the art, as well as an appreciation of additionaladvantages, which will become apparent upon reading the detaileddescription of the preferred embodiment and examining the drawings, thefollowing of which is a brief description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the system for collecting and disposingof medical wastes and its wall holder, showing how the housing of thesystem fits into the wall bracket.

FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of the system for collecting anddisposing of medical wastes of FIG. 1, showing a syringe that has beendeposited in the collector housing.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the circular lid of the system for collectingand disposing of medical wastes of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view of another embodiment and itsinsert.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1, but of anotherembodiment of the invention having a modified lid structure.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a third embodiment of the inventionwhich is of a molded construction.

FIG. 7 is a side cross-sectional view of the embodiment of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a side cross-sectional view of another embodiment, whichincludes a dual wall construction of the cylindrical housing.

FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of yet another embodiment whichincludes a lid having a vertically oriented opening and a collectorhousing.

FIG. 10 is a side cross-sectional view of another embodiment of thesystem for collecting and disposing of medical wastes, having an opentop, with the cover mounted for storage on the bottom.

FIG. 11 is a side cross-sectional view of the embodiment of FIG. 10,with the cover closing the top opening.

FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of another embodiment of thesystem for collecting and disposing of medical wastes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now in more detail to the drawings, in which like numeralsindicate like parts throughout the several views, FIGS. 1-3 illustratethe system 10 for collecting and disposing of medical wastes whichincludes a cylindrical housing 11 and its wall mount 20, according tothe present invention. The housing 11 is shown separated from a wallmount 20 and ready for insertion into a circular sleeve 21 of the wallmount 20 as indicated by the downward directional arrows 13. The wallmount 20 comprises a mounting bracket 22, preferably attached to a wall24 by multiple screws 25 which extends through openings of the bracketinto the wall of the building structure, and the mounting bracket 22supports the circular sleeve 21 in an upright attitude.

The housing 11 comprises an upper telescoping cover 9 and a lowercylindrical body 14. The upper telescopic cover can be attached, such asby adhesive connection, to the cylindrical body of the housing whichincludes a cylindrical side wall 16 with the lower end portion of theside wall turned inwardly to form a circular flange or seat 17 (FIG. 2)and the bottom wall or "plug" 15 is positioned inside the side wall andis supported on the seat 17. Lower cylindrical body 14 and its bottomwall 15 define a holding chamber 12 which is open at its upper end. Anabsorptive insert in the form of an absorption pack 30 resting on bottomwall 15 acts to absorb and disperse liquids throughout the absorptionpack and also can be partially penetrated by syringe needles and othermedical sharps. The configuration and density of the material of theabsorptive insert are selected to absorb the anticipated types andamounts of liquids from the syringes and other items to be placed in thehousing 11. Additionally, the absorptive material of the insert can bemore absorptive than the material of the housing 11.

The telescoping cover 9 includes a cylindrical side wall 23 which is ofsufficient internal breadth to telescopically fit over the upper end ofthe cylindrical side wall 16 of the lower cylindrical body 14 with atight fit, and the telescoping cover 9 is of a diameter larger than thespace defined by the sleeve 21 of the mounting bracket 22 so that whenthe housing 11 is moved down into the circular sleeve 21 of the wallmount 20 the cover 9 supports the cylindrical housing 11 in the mountingbracket. The telescoping cover 9 has on its uppermost portion, upperinwardly projecting circular seat 18 and a top wall or "plug" 19defining a circular aperture 26, with score lines 28 radiating outwardlyfrom the aperture which can separate when medical sharps or othermedical wastes are thrust downwardly through the top wall.

The preferred embodiment of the cylindrical housing used for collectingand disposing of medical sharps and other medical wastes is formed of aleak resistant, rigid, combustible material selected from: cellulosicmaterials, such as paper stock, cardboard, wood, and particle board,non-natural cellulosic materials such as rayon, cellophane, andcellulose-nitrate, and other biodegradable materials such as naturalrubber and natural wax, whereby when burned form gases of combustionwhich yield no more than trace levels of sulfur or chlorine. Thecylindrical housing also can be colored by color agents for designatingmedical sharps, medical wastes, or chemotherapy waste, whereby thecoloring agents are also biodegradable. The housing material can includean anti-microbial additive such as a commercially availabledisinfectant. In addition, it is understood that a cylindrical housingas illustrated in the drawings is only one of many configurations thesystem for collecting and disposing of medical wastes can take. Thehousing can be of various sizes and proportions and can be of shapessuch as rectangular, octagonal, etc.

FIG. 2 shows a used syringe 29 inserted through the aperture 26 of thetelescopic cover 9 and into the holding chamber 12 of the housing 11.The aperture 26 formed in the top wall 19 is sized in accordance withthe expected size of the medical waste items to be collected so that themedical sharp or other medical waste must slightly stretch the aperturealong the score lines 28 when being inserted in the collector. Thistight and yielding fit of the syringe avoids inadvertent escape of thesyringe during subsequent removal and collection of the collector. Theneedle of the syringe which is likely to hold liquid contaminants,usually penetrates an insert or absorption package 30. The absorptionpackage is formed of a group of materials selected from: naturalcellulosic, non-natural cellulosic, and other materials which arebiodegradable and combustible, with antimicrobial additives, such ascommercially available disinfectants. As shown in FIG. 2, thisabsorption package is placed in the lower portion of the cylindricalhousing 11 abutting the bottom plug 15 and the cylindrical side wall 16.

FIG. 4 illustrates an additional embodiment of the absorption package ofthe invention, showing a housing 31 for collecting and disposing ofmedical sharps and with the absorption package comprising aself-supporting insert 35. The insert fits snugly into the lower portionof the holding chamber 32 of the cylindrical body 34 with a bottom wall36 of the insert 35 abutting the bottom wall 37 of the housing. Theself-supporting insert 35 has an annular outer vertical side wall 38extending from the bottom wall 36 of the insert, upwards to a heightless than or equal to the height of the cylindrical side wall 34. Aninwardly and downwardly inclined conically shaped inner wall 39 extendsdownwardly from the upper edge of the vertical side wall 38 of theinsert and intersects horizontal false bottom wall 42 to form aconically shaped receptacle 40, and an annular hollow cavity 45surrounds the conically shaped receptacle. A cork 41 or other means forbeing partially penetrated by, and therefore, retaining medical sharpsis positioned in the lower portion of the conically shaped receptacle40. False bottom wall 42 forms lower chamber 43 above bottom wall 36,and absorptive and combustible material 52 is contained in the lowerchamber. Thus, the conically shaped receptacle 40 tends to guide themedical wastes inwardly and downwardly toward the cork, etc. 41 in thelower portion of the conically shaped receptacle as the medical sharpsand other medical wastes fall downwardly into the receptacle, wherebyexcess fluids of the wastes will be absorbed by and dispersed in theabsorptive and combustible material 52. Multiple air holes 44 aredefined in the false bottom wall 42, wherein any excess fluids can haveaccess to the absorption material 52 in the lower chamber 43 to furtherabsorb any fluids emitted from the medical sharps. The air holes 44 alsoserve as ventilators to enhance combustion within the holding chamber32, when incinerated.

An additional embodiment of the absorption package or insert comprisesfree, flowable particulate material which conforms to the shape of thecontainer when dispersed within the container (not shown).

FIG. 5 illustrates an additional embodiment 50 of a receptor for medicalsharps, wherein the aperture 49 of the top wall 51 is closed by a lid 46having a tab 47 that can be grasped and pulled upwardly to reveal aninner recessed lip 48 about the aperture 49 for receiving medical waste.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate another embodiment of the cylindrical housing60 which includes a molded monolithic lower housing 57 and a molded topwall or a telescoping cover 61. The cover or top wall 61 defines anaperture 65 and a circular lid 62 which closes the aperture, with thelid 62 having a tab 64 for opening the circular lid. The circular lid 62abuts an inner recessed flange 63 about the aperture 65.

The housing 60, which can be cylindrical on the outside as shown orother shapes, defines a holding chamber 66 for receiving medical wastes.The inside surfaces can be tapered for funneling the medical sharps 29and other medical wastes toward a centrally located position, ifdesired. The lower housing 57 has a recessed annular flange or rim 58 inthe upper portion of its annular side wall for receiving theinterlocking telescopic cover 61 and the telescopic cover 61 and lowerhousing 57 form a smooth exterior side wall of the housing 60.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment 70 of the housing which includes a dualcylindrical sidewall structure 71 having an inner cylindrical side wall72 and an outer concentric cylindrical side wall 74. The inner side wall72 is shorter than outer side wall 74 and has its upper and lower endsoff set inwardly of the ends of the outer side wall 74. A top wall 75and a bottom wall 76 supplement the length of the inner side wall 72 atboth ends to form smooth ends to the housing for collecting anddisposing of medical wastes. A holding chamber 78 is defined by theinner side wall 72, and the top wall 75 and the bottom wall 76. It isunderstood that the inner side wall 72 and the outer side wall 74 mayvary in wall thickness either singly or taken in combination with eachother. The top wall 75 defines an aperture 77 and a plug 79 is insertedin and closes the aperture.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment 80 of the system, having a head 82mounted to the wall 24. The head 82 defines an elongated opening 83 anda curved chute 84 extending inwardly and downwardly from the openingtoward the cylindrical housing 81 below, which receives the medicalsharps. The head 82 has a flange 85 with screws 86 or other fastenersfor securing the flange to a wall 24. The lower portion of the head 82defines a cylindrical collar 88 with multiple protruding studs 89extending outwardly therefrom for releasably locking together the head82 and the cylindrical housing 81.

The cylindrical housing 81 includes a top wall 90 having an aperture 91.A rim 92 defines the aperture 91 and has open slots 93 formed thereinfor receiving the studs 89 of the collar 88 of the head 82 to passthrough the top wall, and closed notches 95 to nonrotatably mount thehousing on the head 82. Therefore, as medical personnel fill thecylindrical housing, they can see through the transparent or translucenthead 82 and downwardly through the opening 83 to determine the volume ofmedical waste present in the housing 81 and replace the housing asnecessary.

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate an additional embodiment 100 of the systemfor collecting and disposing of contaminated wastes, which includes acylindrical housing 101, having a lower side wall portion 102 and anupper side wall portion 104. The lower cylindrical side wall portion 102comprises an inwardly turned circular seat 105 with a bottom wall or"plug" 106 positioned inside the lower cylindrical side wall portion102. The bottom wall 106 is supported on the circular seat 105. Theupper side wall porion 104 of the cylindrical housing 101 includes anopening 109 (FIG. 10) leading to a holding chamber 108 for collectingcontaminated wastes.

A telescoping member 110 comprises a cylindrical side wall 111 which isof sufficient internal breadth to telescopically fit about the lowerside wall portion 102, as well as the upper side wall portion 104. Thecylindrical side wall 111 comprises an inwardly turned circular seat 112which supports an end wall 115,

As seen in FIG. 10, the telescoping member 110 is formed to telescopeabout the lower side wall portion 102 when the opening 109 is exposed tocollect contaminated wastes. The telescoping member 110 thereby providesa stabilizing base for the system 100 as contaminated wastes are beingcollected in the collector. In a hospital environment, thisconfiguration is most commonly referred to as a "kick bucket" forreceiving large volumes of medical wastes, such as surgical masks,drapes, garments, or kit packs in an operating or an emergency room.

FIG. 11 illustrates the telescoping member 110 mounted about the upperside wall portion 1-4 of the system 100. When the telescoping member 110telescopes about the upper said wall 104, the opening 109 is therebysealed. Thus, as shown in FIG. 11, the telescoping member 110 provides acover for the opening 109 of the system so as to provide a securecontainer for contaminated wastes, especially when the wastes must behandled and transported from one location to another.

The preferred material of construction in all of the above embodimentscomprises biodegradable, or otherwise known as non petroleum-basedmaterials selected from the following group: natural cellulosic-basedmaterials such as wood, cardboard, particle board and fiber board,non-natural cellulosic materials, such as rayon, cellophane, andcellulose-nitrate, and other materials, such as natural rubber andnatural wax which when burned emit no more than trace amounts of sulphuror chlorine. These materials add to the Btu loading for completelyrendering and transforming the contents of the collectors. Additionalqualities which can be taken singly or in combination, are absorbent forabsorbing liquids emitted from the medical wastes, leak resistant so asto avoid leaking liquid wastes, puncture resistant so as to avoid aneedle of a syringe puncturing the wall of the collector, and rigid soas to avoid inadvertent crushing.

FIG. 12 shows an additional embodiment 120 of the system for collectingand disposing of medical wastes including a receptacle 121 having anopening 122 therein, which takes the similar form and function of ageneric trash bag. The receptacle 121 is inserted into an opening 125 ofany commercially available can or collector 124 and conforms to theshape of its designated collector housing. The receptacle 121 is of anappropriate size to function as a liner for the collector housing andleave a remaining flange about a rim 126 of the collector so as to holditself in position and to ensure noncontamination of the rim of thecollector.

The embodiment 120 can be formed of non-natural cellulosic materials,such as rayon, cellophane, and cellulose-nitrate, whereby whenincinerated evolves no more than trace levels of sulfur or chlorine andyields substantially only biodegradable ash. Characteristics of thisembodiment include leak-resistance, combustibility, andbiodegradability, however, characteristics of this receptor do notnecessarily include puncture-resistance and rigidity because of thegeneral structure of the non-natural, cellulosic material. Thus, thisembodiment is particularly advantageous for use when discardingchemotherapy, pathological, surgical masks, gloves, drapes, and othernon-sharp contaminated wastes.

In some of the above described embodiments, the mass of the materialused to form the housing is matched with the volume of the holdingchamber which will receive a predetermined mass of syringes and otheranticipated typical medical wastes so that the amount of the material ofthe housing is sufficient to emit enough heat when burned to transformthe medical wastes in the holding chamber into a substantiallynoncontaminated and noncombustible residue or ash. After incineration ofthe collector housing, the ash of the collector itself will consist of abiodegradable "mineral" ash.

In some of the above described embodiments, geometric variations such aswall thickness and mass of the housing and the insert, can be adjustedrelative to the internal collection volume of the holding chamber, toyield a predetermined ratio of the ash of the housing with respect tothe ash of the medical waste, when incinerated. This ratio can beadjusted by increasing or decreasing the thickness of the collectorwalls so as to increase or decrease the weight of the collector, or bychanging the size and/or shape of the collector without changing theweight of the collector.

Therefore, if it is desired that the ashes of incineration of thecollector and its contents include more paper ash, which isbiodegradable, and less plastic ash, which is not biodegradable, themanufacturer of the collector can adjust the size, volume and/or weightof the collector. Thus, the ash content of the collector and itscontents can be adjusted so that the ash can be used, for example, as afertilizer if it contains a high ratio of paper ash, or as an additiveto a building material such as concrete or tar if it contains a highratio of plastic ash.

EXAMPLE

For example when the empty collector is 250 mm high and 100 mm in insidediameter, the available volume is calculated: hπr² =1,963,494 mm³. Ifthe syringe is 10 mm in outside diameter and 100 mm long, the occupiedvolume is calculated: hπr² =7,854 mm³. At 100% packing (theoreticalcase), 250 syringes fit into the collector's "occupied volume". For apractical case, the packing density is estimated at 25% of thetheoretical full packing condition, which is 62 syringes. If eachsyringe weighs 0.75 ounces, there are 21.33 syringes per pound, so theloaded collector holds 2.93 pounds of syringes. If the empty collectorcomprises 8 ounces of cardboard, which yields 10% ash by weight, thenupon burning the collector, the anticipated burn results of thecollector are 0.05 pounds of ash. Assuming the syringes are plastic andyield 1.7% ash by weight, then upon burning, the anticipated burnresults of 2.93 pounds of syringes yield 0.05 pounds of ash. Thus, uponburning the collector filled with a practical load of syringes theresulting ratio of plastic ash to paper ash is 1 to 1.

The wall thickness and other geometric variations of the collectorhousing can be tailored to accommodate the needs of different locationsthroughout the medical facility, and to accommodate different items tobe deposited in the collectors and can be adapted relative to thecollection volume within the housing to further control leak-resistance,puncture-resistance, incinerability, biodegradability, and other factorsrelated to the system for collecting and disposing of medical wastes.

Although this invention has been described in relation to medicalwastes, it can be used with other types of wastes, particularly anytypes of contaminated wastes that should be carefully disposed of byburning

While this invention has been described in relation to these preferredembodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that theinvention is susceptible to additional embodiments without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intendedthat the invention not be limited except by the claims.

We claim:
 1. A process of burning contaminated wastes comprising:forminga collector fabricated of materials selected from a group consisting of:natural cellulose materials, non-natural cellulose materials, naturalrubber and natural wax, which are combustible and biodegradable, andwhen burned evolve no more than trace levels of chlorine or sulphur andyield substantially only biodegradable ash, said collector defining aholding chamber for receiving contaminated wastes; the collector havingbeen formed of a mass of the material which embodies the collector incomparison with the volume of the holding chamber of the collector toyield a predetermined ratio of the ash of combustion of the collectormaterial with respect to the ash of combustion of the anticipatedmaximum amount of wastes collected in the holding chamber when thecollector and the wastes in its holding chamber are burned; placing thecontaminated wastes in the holding chamber of the collector; andcombusting in a furnace environment the collector with the contaminatedwastes collected in the holding chamber of the collector.
 2. The processof claim 1 and wherein the step of placing the contaminated wastes inthe holding chamber of the collector further comprises:depositingmedical wastes, including surgical kit pack trays, gowns, masks,garments, gloves and drapes in the holding chamber.
 3. The process ofclaim 1 and wherein the step of forming the collector of a mass of thematerial which embodies the collector further comprises:changing thethickness of the material which forms the collector.